PSV Eindhoven’s Joey Veerman thinks it’s not surprising that they lost to a much more expensive squad at Arsenal.

PSV Eindhoven midfielder Joey Veerman came into Wednesday night’s game against Arsenal after a good run of form, having scored three and assisted seven in his previous seven games.

But against Mikel Arteta’s side at the Emirates Stadium, it was a different story, with Veerman blanking as the hosts eased to a 4-0 win.

Speaking after the game, Veerman focused on the cost of their opponent’s squad.

“(The defeat) is not very strange,” Veerman said. “I think this is the second most expensive team in the world.

“As a footballer, you prefer not to say it, but you know this can happen. They signed a midfielder for 120 million euros. He is more expensive than our entire squad!

“This is no excuse, but it is the way it is.”

“We just like to have the ball,” Veerman added. “That is a little more difficult against Arsenal than in the Eredivisie.

“We knew that Arsenal would be the better team. We should not pretend that this (defeat) just came out of the blue.”

Many have argued that PSV perhaps should have tried to adapt their game more to facing Arsenal, given they knew their opponents would have a lot of the ball.

PSV didn’t set up in a particularly defensive manner, often allowing Arsenal’s wingers time and space to cause problems.

In the first half, that approach did lead to a few opportunities for the away side, but Arsenal were always going to favour the chance to play in an attacking shoot-out.

It’s true that Arsenal’s squad cost significantly more than PSV’s, but plenty of the smaller Premier League teams have shown it’s still possible to compete in individual fixtures.

You just need to be willing to make tactical changes depending on the opposition, and that was something PSV evidently didn’t want to do.